The National Computing Centre Ltd, Manchester, has launched Centrelink, a micro-to-IBM mainframe software link, to be sold initially only to existing users of such links: the NCC claims that the product is easier for non-DP professionals to use and more flexible than its rivals such as Lotus Development Corp’s The Application Connection. Not least among its advantages, according to software division manager Christine Sandford, being that it is independent of other software products and mainframe file formats such as VSAM, ISAM and DL/1, and at the same time provides password security for both users and, if necessary, files; Centrelink, like other NCC products, is licensed over a five year period and starts at UKP20,000 for three existing micro-to-mainframe users, with additional users UKP450 each, and there is a 10% discount for members of the NCC.
